Black Tuesday in the Garden
"We are the landscape of all we have ever seen."When I chose this as the quote of the week in the Garden Center I had no idea how appropriate it would be.
I am afraid that a lot of landscapes changed drastically today.
Horrors beyond imagination, witnessed by tens of thousands of people - many if whom were actual eye witnesses. Many more sat at home glued to the television or radio, only barely comprehending the magnitude of the tragedy that began when four airliners were hijacked, the pilots either killed or forced to aim their planes at buildings swarming with life.
Husbands and wives that only a couple of hours earlier had slugged back that last bit of coffee, given each other a hasty kiss - one hopes they did that, at least, and that none parted under the strain of some inconsequential argument - and then went blithely and obliviously off to meet death.
We have no TV. I logged onto my computer and began to download my e-mail when I noticed an inordinate number of posts where people asked, "Are you watching TV?" I was deleting them until one caught my eye. A plane? Flying into the World Trade Center? It sounded like a suspense novel. Or perhaps a crude hoax - a remake of "War of the Worlds." I hoped so, anyway.
I was already envisioning the Made for TV movie when the second, more unbelievable posts came through. Two planes.
And then a third, striking the Pentagon, and a fourth that crashed in Pittsburgh without harming any population centers - but which is almost certainly related to the other tragedies.
It is too much to take in. I still half waited to find out that it was all a hoax - publicity for a new disaster film. A mistake. Anything but what it was. Reality.
I tuned into NPR Radio on my computer while email messages from around the country continued to report more and more horrific details. There was an actual pain in the pit of my stomach. Was it over? Would we hear of a fifth plane, and a sixth? How many of the students I have taught over the years were in that building? What about my old friend from college who worked for the National Security Agency?
Slowly I was beginning to comprehend. In fact I became so immersed in the reports of ashes thicker than a blizzard and choking billows of smoke that when I finally rose and walked out my side door I stopped in shock.
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